A hub is a part of a system that matters more than the rest of it, not because of anything special about that part itself, but because of how well connected it is. Because so much runs through a hub, it can be a powerful place to create change. It can also be the point where the whole system is most at risk if something goes wrong there.
The two words in this term point at the same thing from two different angles. A hub is the structural fact. It is a component with far more connections or influence than most others in the system. A lever is what that structural position can be used for. It is a promising place to push if you want to change how the whole system behaves. Most of the time, the same component is both at once. A related and more detailed idea, Donella Meadows' leverage points framework, sits above this one, and looks at many other kinds of places to intervene in a system beyond just hubs.
We described a version of this before, without using this language. In Drawing the Map Before You Start Walking, we mapped why girls drop out of school around Class 9 in many parts of India. One thing on that map, the local economy in a district, kept showing up again and again. It shaped whether families believed education was worth it, what a girl could actually do with her education after Class 10, and which women in the community were visible as examples of what was possible. That is what makes something a hub. It was not the biggest or loudest part of the system. It was simply the part that touched the most other parts. Push on it, and the effects would move through several parts of the map at once.
Where You'll See It
The same pattern shows up in systems that have nothing to do with each other:
A community champion. If one person carries most of the trust and the connections that keep an initiative alive, she becomes a hub. If she leaves, the initiative can lose momentum overnight, not because the idea was bad, but because it was resting on one point of connection.
A keystone species. Remove it from an ecosystem, and the loss does not stay contained. Species that depended on it can start disappearing too, in a chain nobody intended.
A bank failing. Because banks are connected to so many other institutions through loans and payments, one collapse can knock through the financial system well beyond the bank itself.
The One Thing People Get Wrong About It
It is easy to assume the most influential part of a system is whoever is biggest, richest, or most senior. Structure works differently. What matters is how connected something is, not how large or how visible it is. A single community champion with the right relationships can matter more to a village initiative than the funder providing all the money, simply because more of the system actually runs through her.
The size of a budget line does not tell you where the real hub is. The map of who is connected to whom does.
Key Takeaways
Identifying hubs and levers helps you find the best place to intervene. Instead of spreading effort evenly across a system, look for the part that touches the most other parts.
Structure matters more than size or visibility. A hub is defined by how connected it is, not by how big, senior, or well funded it happens to be.
The same hub that helps you create change can also make the system fragile. Something that matters this much is also something the whole system depends on, so losing it can cause damage far beyond its own part.
The next time you are deciding where to focus, it might be worth asking a different question. Not who is doing the most, but who is connected to the most.
What are the hubs and levers in the systems you work with? Tell us in the comments!
Related reading: Drawing the Map Before You Start Walking