Citation: Turner, J.R.; Baker, R.; Thurlow, N. Creativity and Innovative Processes: Assemblages and Lines of Flight. Systems 2022, 10, 168. https://doi.org/10.3390/ systems10050168 Academic Editor: Mitsuru Kodama Received: 24 August 2022 Accepted: 16 September 2022 Published: 26 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). systems Article Creativity and Innovative Processes: Assemblages and Lines of Flight John R. Turner 1, * , Rose Baker 1 and Nigel Thurlow 2 1 Department of Learning Technologies, College of Information, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76207, USA 2 The Flow Consortium, McKinney, TX 75072, USA * Correspondence: john.turner@unt.edu Abstract: The current research study presented assemblages theory and the theory of affordances to identify the elements that make up the processes of creativity, innovative, and creativity and innovation. Assemblages involve heterogeneous elements that are associated with and interact with external components. Assemblages include elements that can be either independent or as part of an assemblage. The assemblage comprises elements that contribute to the assemblage, but not all elements are active simultaneously. Each element’s activation and intensity level varies based on context, environment, and constraints. This activation level is represented by lines of flight that aid in showing movement across the elements. Affordances identify agent-to-environment relationships that promote action (abilities and effectivities). The current article identified that creativity affords innovation and innovation affords creativity, interconnecting these two processes as a holistic and composite process from the perspective of affordances theory. The current article provides assemblage maps showing the elements related to creativity, innovation, and creativity and innovation. These assemblage maps highlight virtual and dynamic flight lines that represent potentially active components with varying intensity and direction. Mapping these lines of flight along with the elements for a particular construct (e.g., creativity and innovation) provides a tool for managers and practitioners to identify potentialities for future predictions better. Keywords: creativity; innovation; assemblages; affordances; complexity 1. Introduction Today’s organizational landscape has changed drastically due to a “rise in global inter- connectedness” [1] (p. 570), an increasing rate of unpredictable change [2], and intensive local and global competition [3]. This newly evolving and changing landscape is best characterized as complexity in which we have incomplete knowledge to understanding our world and the connections between our behaviors and outcomes [4]. Just as the orga- nizational landscape is experiencing complexity, so too are other processes ranging from individuals, to local communities, to globally interconnected networks. At the individual level, creativity needs to account for this level of complexity. At the collective and orga- nizational levels, innovative processes must also account for this complexity. Individuals possess the potential of transforming systems to better adapt to today’s complexity while, at the same time, transforming themselves [1]. Complexity is a multidimensional and multilevel construct. One problem with current research efforts is that it is challenging to determine whether creativity and innovation are similar, or different, constructs. The literature has not success- fully differentiated between these two constructs as they are often used interchangeably [5]. A second problem is that previous research related to creativity and innovation have been fragmented, at best. Most research efforts have theorized and examined creativity and innovation as a single-level construct or perspective, have disregarded the complex nature Systems 2022, 10, 168. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems10050168 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/systems