Effective Team and Rowing Coaching - Stormin and norman

I was at a workship on the topic of "Conflict Resolution" and there was a digression into discussing teams. 

Effective Teams
TBA person has identified key stages of teams
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing

It stuck a chord with me becase my BGS YY9 3rd quad seemed to very clearly move from Storming to Norming at the regatta before the head of the river.  At that regatta they rowed noticeably much better in time than they had previously.  They then seemed to be much better focussed and in that week leading up to the head of the river, we for the first time in training managed to make it to the Elanor Schonell Bridge at the uni.  Then on the next training day we managed to row downstream to River Life.  In my view we needed to have been doing this type of rowing since the beginning of the season.

But I don't thing we had gotten to the "Performing" stage.

So I wonder if there is a way we can make use of team theory with coaching.

How do we recognize what phase the team is in while it is in it and not way after the fact?
How would we coach differently depending on the phase.
Should we hasten to push the team to the next phase? 

At a bigger level what is the team?
Is the the crew
Is it the year level?
How would we do things differently

If it is the crew, should we try hard not to make changes
If it is the year level, should we mix up the kids all the time.