I've always found workshops to be helpful. I attended one of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's workshops back in the late 60s and I consider it to have been one of the great educational experiences of my life. As a result of that experience I've been involved with workshop sessions ever since.

Workshops can have many different objectives but they can be very useful for problem solving ie. an attendee may come to the session with a song that they're not happy with ("I've just learned this song, it's a great song, but I'm just not comfortable with it"). The other members of the workshop can often come up with a solution (or solutions) to the singer's problem(s). These solutions are often quite simple eg. "try singing it a bit slower/faster", "try singing it in a lower/higher key" etc., etc. It's amazing what a difference a different perspective can sometimes have.

I vividly remember struggling with a particular ballad and hence being reluctant to sing it in public. One of my fellow workshoppers suggested that I wasn't taking breaths in the right places. Once this was pointed out it seemed obvious - but it worked - everything then fell into place and I found myself to be much more comfortable with the song.

To my mind workshops are not about standardisation but about a group of singers pooling their various strengths, resources and knowledge in order to help everyone in the group become a better singer.