In another product I have seen, they have something they call transitions, better known to the rest of us as if… then… else. Between states, you could essentially have a number of 'transitions' and one default transition (maybe even use the current next state as the default transition). For example, let's say you have:
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
when the person is at stage 1, they approve the workflow document. After stage 1, there are 2 transitions defined:
transition 1: if (somefieldamount > 10000) goto stage 2
default: goto stage 3
This way, you may go to one stage without touching the other.
Thanks,
Eric