A gelatinous question

Dear Bob ...

I've recently been introduced to an idea that I have never considered before - nor experienced - and I'm struggling with understanding it. The idea is that you can orchestrate the "jelling" of a team very early in it's lifecycle by taking the team members through a series of exercises/dialogues on team governance (e.g. how will we make decisions, how will we deal with conflict, etc.).

I've worked on many teams, some of them I would consider as being "jelled" teams. By "jelled" I mean that there was a significant level of trust among the team members resulting in very open and honest communication (as well as other qualities). But in my experience (albeit limited) those teams jelled because of how the work, circumstances, environment, etc. evolved and presented each of us with choices and shared experiences.

I have never been on a team that jelled simply through a series of somewhat-scripted exercises. (Having said that, I don't currently believe that a team has to be jelled to be effective - although I do believe that a jelled team is more effective).

What do you think?