Many firms are confronted with paradoxical tensions. For firms to recognize tensions these have to become salient. Prior research suggests that environmental and cognitive factors render latent tensions salient and argues implicitly that where environmental factors are complex, paradoxical cognition is required. In this paper we present the general model of rendering paradoxical tensions salient where developing cognition is only one of three possible strategies. We formulate the general condition of rendering latent tensions salient: it is possible only when information fits both a described situation (environment) and actors’ cognition. Based on this condition we introduce the other two alternative ways to make tensions salient, i.e. simplification of the information and simplification of the situation, that have been overlooked by scholars. Using the doubly complex application of coopetition for sustainability we show how the strategy of simplification of the information can be implemented to recognize and systemize paradoxical tensions.