Not Good vs Bad

In Buddhism, instead of saying that a thought is good or bad, it is said that it is either skillful or unskillful.  One the one side, there is greed, hatred, delusion. On the other, generosity, compassion, and wisdom. I have recently returned from a conference where the focus was on using operant conditioning as a technology to train everything from a fish to a person to perform tasks quickly, precisely, and in a way that is enjoyable for both the trainer and the trainee. This type of training is in sharp contrast to methods of compulsion, of force, of threats. In my mind I have found it easy, then, to lump trainers into "good" trainers (those who use operant conditioning) and "bad" trainers (those who use aversive means). This is not a useful distinction because it implies that people are fixed as being one way or the other. By shifting my perspective to view one's training methods as skillful or unskillful, it opens up the possibility of change, of improvement, of compassion, of understanding.