WARNING: Parts of this Thought Partner Friday are AI-generated (literally)!

In February, my marketing team, led by the fabulously creative Erin Culleny, posted this AI caricature of me on LinkedIn so I could jump on that bandwagon trend. If you didn’t see it on LinkedIn, we may not be connected. Admittedly, I’m not great with that, so please connect with me on LinkedIn if you’re a Thought Partner! 

Anyway, I bring this up now because this month we’re focusing on Building and Empowering Teams. I thought, before we bang on with hard-core content (May has 5 Fridays for goodness sake), I thought it might be fun to invite you and your teams to create your own AI Caricatures as a means of deepening your relationships further.

Understanding that some of you may not feel comfortable using AI in this capacity, as I wasn’t, I enlisted ChatGPT to help me with the details. Below is a quick guide to get you started.

How to Create Your AI Caricature

Step 1: Prepare Your Photo

  • Use a clear, well-lit photo where your face is fully visible
  • Avoid blurry or heavily filtered images
  • Make sure lighting is even

Step 2: Open ChatGPT

  • Use a version that allows image uploads (ChatGPT Plus or the mobile app)
  • Upload your prepared photo

Step 3: Write Your Prompt

  • Describe the style you want (cartoon, hand-drawn, 3D, colorful, professional)
  • Mention your profession or role
  • Add personal details (hobbies, props, background elements)
  • Specify how exaggerated you want the features

Step 4: Generate and Refine

  • Let ChatGPT create your caricature
  • If you’re not satisfied, ask for specific changes and regenerate
  • Keep tweaking until you love it

Sample Prompts to Try

  • “Create a colorful cartoon-style caricature with exaggerated facial features.”
  • “Generate a professional caricature showing me as a [your job] with tools of my trade.”
  • “Make a 3D-style caricature of me at work with [relevant items] in the background.”
  • “Create a clean, simple caricature suitable for a profile picture.”

Team Activity Ideas

  • Have everyone create their caricature and share in a team meeting
  • Use them as fun profile pictures on Slack or Teams
  • Create a team gallery or collage
  • Vote on the most creative, most accurate, or funniest results
  • Use them for team introductions or virtual backgrounds

If you have not created an AI Caricature with your team, family, or people you genuinely care about, think about copying these instructions (or better yet, forward this TPF, and they can click the link at the top to join our network themselves) and invite them to the challenge.

It’s fun, and it’s a great way to deepen relationships, commonality, and connection with others. And who doesn’t think we need more of that?