WORKSHOP vs WORKCHOP

With my little exposure to the corporate world, I arrived at this title. Workshop or workchop; I am sure the essence of some words are losing value so fast and lots of funds get sunk into this white Elephant project.

Workshop is defined as a seminar, discussion group, that emphasizes exchange of ideas and the demonstration and application of techniques, skills etc. A theater workshop; opera workshop. In this context, we can really imagine how much organizations are expected to benefit when such events are put together but the result is contrary.



As a Nigerian, we are used to substituting the word “eat” with chop. "I just chop eba finish." It is pidgin and it is also referred to as broken English (the bastardized or localized English words). I did a merger of these words “Work” and “chop”. So workchop can be defined according to me, as the congregation of executives who are meant to exchange ideas and demonstrate it what has been learnt in a real world scenario albeit make that an avenue of getting per diem, relaxing, chatting and feasting”.

As rightly defined, we are losing the essence of the word which is encompassing in outlook and having brainstorming included in the achievement of organizational goals. So all executives now look forward to the fun and frills of workchop than that of workshop set ahead. Maybe we need to go global in our approach once more and depart from the mindset of Africanism.

The significance effect of workchop is that the sub-ordinate who has a peripheral idea of the subject matter is made to suffer for it. He has to present what he rarely knows to others, he has to defend what his superiors have refused to know and at the end, the scapegoat for any mishap that betides his organization is the su-ordinate. Man hours are wasted, economical resources thrown to the bin.

We have to re-orient ourselves of the need for standard workshop with qualitative results. Our methodology of achieving organizational goals must be in tandem with what we have come to discuss. Let us migrate from workchop to proper workshop and come out with fascinating developments for our organization, the society and the world at large.

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